This post deals with a little splash of syncretism. There are many races in Cimmeria and it’s natural for them all to view the gods as physically similar to themselves. And who can say that they aren’t?

When the orcs left the Conclave to conquer the goblins they were a single unit led by a council of elders known as the Maglibarjil. Once they subjugated the goblins the Maglibarjil elders split apart to lead different communities. These communities developed their own cultures and became the many tribes of the Orc Lands today.

All the separated orc tribes soon experienced the true threat of living close to goblinoid populations, bugbears. The bugbears raided orc settlements relentlessly. The Maglibarjil attempted to organize the tribes, but each tribe wished to protect only themselves and not the orcs as a whole. Cannibalistic attacks continued until a powerful orc rose up and drove away the bugbears around their tribe. No one knows for sure which tribe this orc came from or what the orc’s name was. Each of the oldest tribes claims the hero as their own.

The orc hero commanded their tribe to protect the closest neighboring tribe. They drove off the bugbears there and the process continued. Each of the tribes worked together under the orc hero’s leadership. No quarter was given to the cannibal bugbears. The orc hero’s genocidal war resulted in the almost complete destruction of the bugbear race.

At the end of the carnage the orc hero, now known as the First Orc Chief, swore that their people would never know fear like the bugbear raids again. The hero took their fight to the source of the bugbear menace, Zeus himself, for who else controlled the fates of mortals? The First Orc Chief marched against Mount Olympus and engaged Zeus in combat. Zeus killed the rebellious mortal, but not before the First Orc Chief had cut off a tusk of Zeus’s. The tusk fell to the earth beside the First Chief’s body.

The Maglibarjil owed a great debt to the First Chief. To honor the hero they took the tusk of Zeus and forged it into the tip of the First Chief’s sword. Additionally they took the First Chief’s skin and made a suit of hide armor out of it. These items were to be wielded and worn by the greatest champion of the orkish race. The sword is known as Ynedg-Drathul the Tusk of Heaven and the armor is known as the Skin of the First Chief.

The Maglibarjil ruled the orcs in the First Chief’s absence, but over time their power waned as each tribe’s self-interest halted the benefits of collective action. Today the Maglibarjil is a powerless figurehead within orkish society.